Charles W. Chesnutt to Booker T. Washington, 21 June 1902
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CHAS. W. CHESNUTT,
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW,
1005 WILLIAMSON BUILDING.
CLEVELAND, O. June 21, 1902.
Booker T. Washington, Esq.,
South Weymouth, Mass.
My dear Mr. Washington:-
I am in receipt of yours of June 19th, and note what you say in reference to a meeting here.1 Your letter arrives on the eve of my departure for a western trip which will occupy two weeks or a little more.2 I will try to get speech with one or two influential friends of mine tomorrow, which is Sunday, and if I do not succeed will write to them or take the matter up immediately upon my return home. The leading social club in this city is the Union Club, which has many wealthy members and is exceedingly exclusive. The Colonial Club will come next in order. These two have elegant club houses. There is University Club, the Century Club, the Chamber of Commerce and some other organizations.3 I have no doubt it would be possible to arrange such a meeting as you suggest, and there is plenty of time ahead to do it.
Sincerely yours, Chas. W. ChesnuttCorrespondent: Booker T. Washington (1856–1913), one of the most well-known Black activists of the early 20th century, was born into slavery in Virginia. In 1881, he became the president of what would become the Tuskegee Institute, advocating widely as a speaker and writer for technical education for Blacks, whose entry into American industry and business leadership he believed to be the road to equality. His political power was significant, but because he frequently argued for compromise with White Southerners, including on voting rights, he was also criticized by other Black activists, especially by W. E. B. Du Bois.
1. Booker T. Washington visited Ohio in November of 1902 and spoke in Cleveland on the 20th at Adelbert College (formerly Western Reserve College, later Case Western Reserve University); see Cleveland Gazette, November 15, 1902: 6. [back]
2. President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a letter to Governor Winfield Durbin of Indiana in which he condemned lynching and praised Durbin for a military intervention when Black citizens were attacked in Evansville, Indiana, in early July 1903. The letter was released to the press; see "President's View of Lynching," New York Tribune, August 10, 1903: 1. [back]
3. The clubs mentioned here were founded in the late 1800s. The Chamber of Commerce had more than 1,000 members by 1900, and the Union Club had 500, but both were still very exclusive. Some nominees for membership waited ten years before being approved. The Century Club was a women's club. Chesnutt was a long-time member of the Chamber of Commerce (1912–1931), but in 1930 observed that few clubs had Black members. See "The Negro in Cleveland." [back]
